This invention relates to a shoe, especially an athletic, leisure or rehabilitation shoe, with an upper part consisting, at least partially, of a flexible material which covers the ankle of the foot (3/4 mid-height) or rises above the ankle (high top). More specifically, the invention relates to a shoe of this type which is provided with an instep cover covering the instep of the foot (which is movable like a tongue or forms the tongue or a part of it) on which a central rotary closure is provided, with which at least the instep length of a tightening element can be shortened for closing the shoe and can be extended for opening it, and the tightening element is alternately guided respectively from a guide element on the upper side part to a guide element of the instep cover.
Such a sport shoe is known, for example, from commonly owned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/010,385, and low top versions of such shoes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,177,882 and 5,117,567. In using the known central closure of the noted patents for shoes which have a very large open throat area or in shoes with a high top upper, which by nature have a greater throat area, the central rotary closure has to be able to accommodate a large lengthwise section of the tightening element in the closed position. Therefore, it has to have a correspondingly large winding space for the tightening element. Otherwise, to obtain an effective closure, as disclosed in the noted co-pending patent application, a more complex double-reel central closure must be used with multiple tightening elements.
Moreover with greater instep length, the ratio of the tightening action to the angle of rotation is small because of the originally small diameter of the winding element of the central rotary closure and increases with increases in the length wound, i.e., the effective diameter of the reel increase as the tightening element is wound thereon so that a greater length of the tightening element will be wound on the reel each successive turn thereof. But, to tighten the tightening element, especially the opposite result would be more favorable, namely a shorter length of the tightening element being wound on the reel with each successive turn thereof at the end of the tightening process, so that a better fine-tuning of the fit would be possible.
Sliding closures for shoes are also known; for example, a sliding closure is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,994,935 which extends over the entire length of the tongue. It consists of a relatively rigid material. A good matching of the shoe in this sliding area to the shape of the foot is, therefore, not possible. A shortening of the sliding path of the sliding closure is not possible because of the necessary opening angle of the upper side parts and the, thus, necessary large instep length of the tightening element. Therefore, such sliding closures could not catch on in the market.
Similarly, zipper-type closures are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 2,345,057 and French Utility Model Publication 2501977. These closures, which are attached to the shoe upper by conventional shoe laces, also, extend over the entire length of the tongue.